Read Between the Lines
by aining04
Summary: A series of oneshots on the ninjas with something to hide. Their stories are just waiting to be found.
1. Gai

To Be Understood…

Chapter 1: Gai

If you asked anyone who knew Gai in passing, they would tell you that he was crazy and unstable. That he wasn't fit to be a ninja because he wasn't serious about his job. Those people would be wrong, and they shouldn't have judged him so quickly.

Gai used to be one of the most serious ninja in Konoha. He wore dark clothes to blend in and he didn't have bowl cut hair or bushy eyebrows. However, that all changed after he met Kakashi. He was 14 at that time, and Kakashi had been 12. They both had just become jounin.

He was with his sensei, who was taking him to meet the Fourth and his students for a combined training session. When he had been introduced to Kakashi, he immediately noticed that Kakashi had his headband over one eye and had a look of regret, sadness, guilt, coldness and anger in the other. He also noticed how tense and uptight Kakashi was. He had heard rumors about the mission they had recently went on, and how one of their teammates, Obito, didn't come back with them.

He and Obito had been friends, and used to hang out at the Academy together. So he knew of how Obito was and instinctively knew that although Obito's attitude would have annoyed Kakashi to no end, it would have also comforted Kakashi and taken his mind off of other, darker things. He made two promises to himself then and there that he would take care of Kakashi as Obito had done, and that he would never let what he did as a ninja shape who he was.

So he began changing himself first, wearing that horrid green jumpsuit, growing bushy eyebrows, and cutting his hair in a bowl cut style. Since he knew Kakashi would think he was trying to take Obito's place if he started acting like him, Gai began to challenge Kakashi to meaningless little fights. Even if he was dead tired from a recent mission, he would seek Kakashi out, usually at the memorial stone, and challenge him.

This happened even more often after Kyuubi attacked and the Fourth died. They were practically seen everywhere together after that, because Gai would follow Kakashi around and take his mind off of everything. In a way, this was how Gai coped too. With all the death around him from being a ninja, making sure that Kakashi was okay was his way of preserving himself to. By saving Kakashi, he was saving a bit of himself because then he knew he wasn't only good at being a killer, but also good at being a friend too.

He doesn't challenge Kakashi nearly as much now, because Kakashi has his own team to look after. Gai doesn't mind that one bit, because he has his own young people to keep sane and safe. And for now, he and Kakashi would be okay, because they had a purpose other than killing in their lives. He would keep that façade he put on to make Kakashi stay sane because it would help others too. Kakashi would sometimes invite him for a meal together, and that was all the gratitude Gai needed. Knowing that the other understood what he was doing and was grateful for it even if he never outright said it- that kept Gai going through all the hard times.


	2. Jiraiya

To Be Understood…

Chapter 2: Jiraiya

_Everyone _knows Jiraiya is a pervert. He even admits to being a super pervert, which is no small feat. Most would think that he spends all his spare time peeking on women in bathhouses, and is rarely– if ever– serious. That is how he _wants_ them to think of him. It is a simple case of façades, it helps him cope with what he has done in his past life as an active shinobi. It also helps him shield his real feelings.

The mask began after he made his first kill. He first started out like Naruto, putting up an idiotic, all too cheerful mask to fool those around him. Gradually, it became something more. Soon, he could barely tell the difference between himself and the mask. He panicked when he realized this, trying so hard to tear that mask off, both literally and figuratively. He kept scratching and pulling at his face until he bled, but he couldn't tear it off. The next day, when Sarutobi-sensei asked what happened to him, he lied saying that he got caught peeking. Of course, they all believed him because they thought he was a pervert. When they believed him so easily, he began to think about all the things he could get away with just because they thought so lowly of him.

It hurt. One thing he never realized was how much it hurt when someone you cared for thought so lowly of you. Tsunade-hime would always punch him for no reason other than the fact that she thought he was leering at her, when in fact he was admiring how beautiful she looked, with or without breasts. Orochimaru would sneer at him and tell him that he was lower than dirt or scoff when he made even the tiniest mistake. Sarutobi-sensei was the worst though. He understood that Orochimaru was more talented, more likely to be a _someone_ in the ninja world, but that didn't mean he had to favor Orochimaru _that _much, did it? Sarutobi-sensei didn't have to scold him every time he was hit by Tsunade-hime or got into an argument with Orochimaru. It never made sense, how he was always told to be more like Orochimaru, when everyone knew he was already powerful in his own way.

He loves them all. He still loves Sarutobi-sensei, Orochimaru, Tsunade-hime, Namikaze Minato, and Uzumaki Naruto. He even loves the damn village, even after everything it did to Naruto and Tsunade-hime. He loves Sarutobi-sensei and Orochimaru because even after all the hurt they made him go through, in the end, they are all still connected by an unbreakable bond. Sarutobi-sensei will still be his teacher and mentor and Orochimaru will still be his bastard of a best friend, no matter what he does. Tsunade-hime will always be his first and only love, the reason why he writes all those perverted novels and goes peeking at bathhouses, the reason he _wants_ to come home alive during dangerous scouting missions. Minato was there for him when Tsunade-hime left, he was the only reason for living back then, when everything seemed so bleak. Minato's bubbling personality brought him back to life, and even gave him hope that not everything was wrong in his life, and that _someone_ could see through his now permanent mask. When Minato had died, he had wanted to take Naruto with him, but Minato's last words were the hope for Naruto growing up in the damned village. He couldn't bear to leave Naruto, but he couldn't break his promise to Minato either.

And Naruto…Naruto was different. He was so much like Minato that at first it was hard to even look at him. He almost wanted to hate the kid for being so much like the Fourth and being the last thing he had left too. When he first met Naruto, he had pitied him for being the Nine-tails carrier, then that pity turned into a grudging respect. Not for the mask, but for the way he had been coping with the whole twelve years of his life. He regretted never being there for the gaki, but then, if he had, things would have been a lot more different, and he wouldn't have wanted that. Things were just fine the way they were now. He and the gaki get along, with a kind of grandfather-grandson relationship. He understands what the gaki's hiding and the gaki understands what he's hiding. They love each other all the more for it. In a way, teaching the gaki is his way of repenting to Minato for abandoning Naruto so long ago. Naruto helps him look at the bright side of things, and helps him come to terms with his mask, even accepting it. For the first time in forever, he is able to take it off without a struggle, but only around the gaki.

For now, it's enough, and he's content. Finding one person in the world who truly loves and understands you without a mask, that is the most precious thing for both him and Naruto. Maybe one day, sometime in the future, he'll have the courage to take his mask off in front of Tsunade-hime, and maybe she'll love him without it too.


	3. Naruto

Read Between the Lines

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but the ideas are mostly my own.

Chapter 3: Naruto

Almost everyone knows Naruto wears a mask. Who, in his position, could ever be so sunny and upbeat without one? What they don't know, and never bother to find out is how deep that mask runs. How much of the act is real, and how much is fake?

Naruto would be the last to tell you anything about it, he would just deny knowing about any mask, or screw his face up in that dopey look of his and act like only a dobe can act. Any one of his 'friends' would tell you that it was just enough to encourage others and keep himself up when he was down, nothing more. But then, they didn't know the truth about Naruto's life, and never bothered to find out. Jiraiya would frown and mutter something about idiot gaki's, but wouldn't deem to tell any of his apprentice's secrets to anyone. If the third hokage had been alive, he would have smiled sadly and said that some things were kept hidden because they were supposed to be found, not given. Tsunade would scowl and get angry with you for not just asking Naruto, and bothering her from her nap. But when you turn away, she would get a sad look on her face, and become lost in her memories.

"A ninja must always look underneath the underneath." That was one of the first things Naruto had ever learned at the Academy. He took that to heart, if one must look underneath the underneath all the time, why not apply that right away? So he did. He began to hide parts of his feelings and intelligence away, waiting for someone to call him out on it. But no one ever did. For years he kept it up, mostly because it also helped him deal with what he liked to call 'my way of life', and partly because a bit of him would just never stop hoping that someone would come along and see him for who he really was and love him for it. Hokage-jiji didn't count because he knew Naruto long before the mask came up, and all of his fellow Leaf-nins didn't count because they never bothered to look further than his mask.

He yearned for them to read between the lines, to look underneath the underneath, to understand the pain in his eyes. He was so lonely, and it hurt every time they made fun of him or reacted to him the way they did with dobe's, because in their minds, that was exactly what he was. Once a dobe, always a dobe, right Sasuke? When he had jumped up and declared that he would be Hokage, his 'team' had laughed at him. Couldn't they understand that all he wanted, no, _needed_ was a family? Someone to love him for who he was, not just the stupid mask he always lost himself in? Was it really that hard? Maybe he should just give up. But then, I can't, because I can't find the real me anymore. It's so hard to remember how I was before the mask. Someone save me!!

When he was just about to lose himself to the panic of not being able to distinguish himself from his mask, Iruka came to him. So did Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Shizune. Together, they made up a family, if a _bit_ dysfunctional. They loved each other, even if Tsunade and Jiraiya would never admit it. And, for the first time in his entire life, Naruto was _truly _happy. Sure, he had content at times, even excited, but never _happy_. At least, not for a very long time anyway. And maybe, just maybe, he would be able to extend his family to a couple of other people, if they wanted it of course.


End file.
